


All the Stars in the Sky

by DetectiveKnight



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Colonist (Mass Effect), Eventual Romance, F/M, Original Character(s), Paragon Commander Shepard, Slow Burn, Sole Survivor (Mass Effect), Spoilers, Vanguard Shepard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-25
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-06 04:36:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4208169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetectiveKnight/pseuds/DetectiveKnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko is thrilled to learn that he was specially selected to serve on the Alliance's best ship. When he learns he will be serving under the famous Commander Shepard, he isn't sure what to think. No one knows much of anything about her after her service record. But of course, there's always more to it than that.</p>
<p>Commander Mabel Shepard is glad to serve, but she still struggles with her past experiences. She has only one person to talk to about it, but because he's her commanding officer, she feels she can't. When she meets a certain lieutenant, however, she feels like she may finally have found someone who could change that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Debrief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaidan is nervous to meet the famous Commander Shepard.

“Hey, guess who I just saw!”

“Who?”

“Commander Shepard! She’s at the Alliance HQ, in the flesh!”

“Oh, quit pulling my leg.”

“I’m serious! She’s a lot more intimidating in person than in the vids.”

“Of course she would be! She escaped the raid on Mindoir even after seeing her family and friends killed or taken as slaves, and then was the only survivor of the tragedy on Akuze. When you go through that much, of course you would end up intimidating. Not that I believe you really saw her.”

“I swear! She was walking to Captain Anderson’s office!”

Kaidan Alenko snorted. He couldn’t help but overhear the two Salarian ambassadors gossip; They were so loud he could hear them across the lounge, even over the din of the other visitors.

Yes, Commander Mabel Shepard was a living legend. Still, Kaidan thought it was ridiculous how people gossiped about her as if she was a celebrity from some drama vid. She was a military hero. But the vids only showed that part of her. No one knew much else about her. She was a very private person, but then again, you almost had to be when you were almost the center of attention.

Kaidan didn’t say anything, but he was one of the lucky few to be selected for the crew of the Normandy, the Alliance ship Commander Shepard was to be serving on under Captain Anderson. Soon, he would be able to judge her based on her personality instead of just her military achievements.

All Kaidan knew about her was about her history with Mindoir and Akuze, and that she was a Vanguard, someone who specializes in biotics and combat both. (He hoped she had the better implants; the L2 implants were awful and gave him the worst migraines, and he was one of the lucky ones! He would never wish that on anyone, not even his worst enemy.) The vids usually showed her with her helmet on, so he didn’t really know what she looked like.

Well, he would find out soon enough. They would both be serving on the Normandy, so even though he was of lower rank than her, Kaidan would be working with Commander Shepard often.

Speaking of which, Kaidan had to go. It was almost time for him to report to the lineup for the initial debriefing. He left the lounge, waving at the security guard, someone he had known since childhood and yet couldn’t remember a name for. Everyone else ignored the fact that he was leaving.

Despite arriving twenty minutes early, Kaidan had still been beaten there by two other people,  aside from the captain: A man leaning heavily on crutches and Commander Shepard herself. Commander Shepard was deep in conversation with Captain Anderson, so quiet Kaidan could hear only a faint murmur. Instead, he approached the man on crutches.

“You another crew member?” the man asked.

“Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko.”

“Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau. Call me Joker.”

“Nice to meet you, Joker. May I ask what’s up with the crutches?”

“Vrolik syndrome. But I earned my position here and everything else.”

“Hey, if you’re here, I don’t doubt it. Didn’t mean to offend you,” Kaidan said.

“It’s alright. I just get so many people who assume I’m some charity case, you know?” Joker replied, shrugging.

“I get it.”

“Hey, so what do you think of the Commander? When I got here she was already talking with Captain Anderson, and they still haven’t stopped. Wonder what it’s about?”

“All I know of her is from the vids.”

“Know of who from the vids?”

Kaidan jumped, not having noticed the Commander’s approach until she spoke up. He quickly saluted her, feeling embarrassed to have been caught talking about her.

Commander Mabel Shepard was tall, only an inch or so shorter than Kaidan. Her build was muscular, thanks to her years of military service, yet also womanly. She had auburn hair cropped to her chin, with bright green eyes. Running from just above her right eyebrow, across the bridge of her nose, and to below her left cheekbone was a pale scar. She was just as intimidating as the Salarians had said.

Still, Kaidan thought, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Commander Shepard chuckled and crossed her arms. “Rest easy, soldier. No need to be quite so formal with me, not right now. You were saying?”

Kaidan relaxed. So far, the commander was nice, too. He hoped she wasn’t just putting on a show; it would be a shame if she had a rotten personality.

“All I know of you is from the vids, ma’am. That you’re a survivor, and you’re a Vanguard. No one really knows much else of you,” Kaidan explained.

“Yes, and that’s because I prefer to keep myself out of the spotlight as much as I possibly can,” the Commander replied with a wry smile. “What’s your name, soldier?”

“Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, ma’am.”

“Nice to meet you, Lieutenant. And you?” she asked, turning to Joker.

“Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, ma’am, but call me Joker.” He leaned on one crutch and gave a quick salute.

“Commander Mabel Shepard. It’s nice to meet you both. I hope we work well together on the coming mission.” The Commander paused. “I don’t think I was supposed to say that yet. Well, you’ll find out soon enough.”

Kaidan fought it, but the tiniest smile broke out on his face. Commander Shepard smiled herself and turned on her heel, returning to Captain Anderson’s side. Just as she reached him, others began to filter into the room.

Kaidan had no time to process everything that had just happened, as even more people arrived and the lineup was beginning to assemble. Joker tried to give him an eyebrow wiggle, but Kaidan merely looked away, choosing to ignore him rather than egg him on. They got into formation to prepare for the captain’s debriefing.

The captain mainly spoke of the privilege they had all been granted to serve on the Alliance’s best ship, and that they had an important job ahead. When he introduced the Commander, she received zealous salutes from the entire crew. Everyone wanted to impress the famous Commander Shepard. Then, Captain Anderson changed subjects.

“There is a situation there that the Alliance needs to handle. Only the best will be able to take care of it. However, there will be a Turian Spectre aboard. He is here to be the eyes of the Council, so they know just what their generous aide in the creation of the Normandy resulted in. I expect nothing but the best treatment of him. I am not at liberty to tell you any more as of yet. Everyone board and get settled. Report to your stations in ten minutes. Dismissed.”

People began to file into the Normandy. Kaidan was at his station in five minutes. At the moment, he was to help Joker get the ship ready to take off. Just as he was about to settle into his seat, Captain Anderson arrived with a Turian – THE Turian, the Spectre who was to accompany them on their mission.

Kaidan saluted the pair, receiving acknowledging nods from each. Captain Anderson introduced the Spectre as Nihlus and left to speak with the navigator. Kaidan settled into his position, just in time to see Joker tucking his crutches under his seat. Joker began pushing buttons and switches, then announced that they were ready for takeoff.

Takeoff went smoothly, leading to quite a bit of gloating from Joker. Kaidan merely smiled, allowing him to gloat. His ego was already too big to grow any more by just simple bragging.

A short while later, Joker announced over the comms that they were about ready to go through the Arctus Prime Relay. Just about then, Kaidan heard quick, soft footsteps growing louder as they approached the bridge. He didn’t turn to look; that would make it too obvious he wasn’t paying as much attention to his duties as he should be at the moment. He returned his full attention to what Joker was saying, just as he announced what the drift levels were.

“Fifteen-hundred is good. Your captain will be pleased,” Nihlus said, just before turning and walking away.

As soon as the Spectre was out of earshot, Joker sighed. “I hate that guy,” he muttered.

“Nihlus gave you a compliment, so you hate him?” Kaidan asked, surprised. They had only just met him!

Joker went on to talk about the difference between “good” and “incredible,” which was what he claimed was how he had done. Just then, the quick footsteps reached the area just behind the seats. Kaidan spared a moment to look up and saw it was Commander Shepard. She did seem like the type of person to walk quickly and quietly. When Joker began to talk about how he wasn’t happy about having a Spectre aboard, Kaidan had to fight back a laugh.

“You’re paranoid. The Council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment,” Kaidan reminded him.

“Yeah, that is the _official_ story. But only an idiot believes the official story.”

Kaidan rolled his eyes. Joker seemed to be set in his ways – preferred human company, was weary of aliens and thought they were potentially dangerous. He supposed it was understandable, Joker’s opinion, but people had to change.

Kaidan heard a soft chuckle behind him. “You always expect the worst, I see,” Commander Shepard stated.

Joker snorted. “Well, bad feelings are an occupational hazard. We don’t go anywhere unless there’s a good reason, so what are we doing here?”

Just then, Captain Anderson came over the comms, asking for a status report. Joker snapped his attention back to the screens in front of him.

“Just cleared the mass relay, Captain. Stealth systems engaged. Everything looks solid.”

“Good. Find a comm buoy and link us into the network. I want mission reports relayed back to Alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime.”

“Aye aye, Captain. Better brace yourself, sir. I think Nihlus is headed back your way.”

Kaidan winced. Joker shouldn’t have put it that way.

“He’s already here, Lieutenant.” And that was why. You could hear how unimpressed the Captain was from his tone. Kaidan doubted Nihlus would be happy about Joker’s choice of words. He shook his head at Joker. “Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the comm room for a debriefing.”

“You get that, Commander?” Joker asked, glancing over his shoulder.

“I’m on my way.” With that, Commander Sheard turned on her heel and walked away, the quick yet soft footfalls fading from earshot.

When she was gone, Joker scoffed and turned to Kaidan. “Is it me, or does the captain always sound a little pissed off?”

“Only when he’s talking to you, Joker.”

They fell into silence and continued preparing the Normandy for the trip to Eden Prime. People began to chatter about various topics, allowing for the quiet din of voices to take over the sounds of the ship. Not that there were many sounds from the ship; It had been designed to be quieter than all other ships the Alliance had. Kaidan fell into the lull and allowed himself to perform on autopilot. He tuned out all of the noise and just lost himself in his thoughts.

“Captain! We’ve got a problem,” Joker announced. Kaidan jumped and turned to the screens in front of him. An alert was flashing on the main screen. It was announcing a transmission – and not a “welcome to Eden Prime” transmission. This was a distress call.

“What’s wrong, Joker?”

“Transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You better see this!”

“Bring it up on screen.”

Joker played the transmission, and it appeared on Kaidan’s monitor too. A cloud of smoke filled the screen, and gunshots echoed from the speakers. A soldier appeared on screen, firing at something, and then rushed at the person who was filming the transmission. She got them into cover and began firing again, just as an explosion jarred the camera and tore the focus away from the soldier. There was a view of a dark figure firing before another soldier spoke.

“We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties! I repeat: We can’t – Need evac! They came out of nowhere! We need-!” The soldier was shot in the back, and drops of blood landed on the camera lens. As he fell, the camera focused on the cloud of smoke again.

A giant ship began to emerge, and the camera was turned on the other soldiers, capturing their shock and worry. It panned back to the ship. Explosions sounded, and red lightning emanated from the legs of the ship. Then, it cut to static.

It was awful. Something had gone terribly wrong at Eden Prime, and innocent people were paying for it. Kaidan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He should be used to it; He was a soldier after all. But all those innocent, unprepared people being attacked for no obvious reason…

“Everything just cut out after that. No comm traffic at all. Just goes dead. There’s nothing,” Joker said.

“Reverse and hold at 38.5,” Captain Anderson ordered. Kaidan rewound the transmission and paused it on a frame of the attacking ship, its legs extended to make it look almost spider-like. Only silence came over the comms. Seeing a still frame of the ship almost made it worse, if that were possible, because he was able to start picking out details.

“Status report,” Captain Anderson finally said, breaking the silence.

“Seventeen minutes out, Captain. No other Alliance ships in the area.”

“Take us in, Joker. Fast and quiet.” The comms shut off, but Kaidan knew the captain was discussing what they had just seen with Nihlus and Commander Shepard.

A few moments later, the fast and quick footsteps returned. The Commander’s voice echoed loudly through the bridge, despite her voice normally being much quieter. Kaidan allowed himself to turn and look this time.

“Jenkins! Gear up and meet me in the armory! Move!” she demanded as she stormed past. People dove out of her way as she hurried onto the bridge.

“Alenko!” Kaidan jumped, banging his knees on the console when she barked his name. “You too, suit up! You’re coming with me! Be in the armory in five!” With that, she turned around and stalked off in the direction of the armory.

Kaidan scrambled out of his chair and took off in the direction of his weapons locker. Somehow, despite being the last one told, he managed to beat Jenkins and even Nihlus there. He wanted to impress the Commander; That, and she seemed a lot more frightening when she was on a mission.

Luckily for him, the Commander seemed very impressed that he had arrived first. She gave him a tiny smile and a nod, just as Nihlus arrived. Close behind him was Jenkins, obviously not used to gearing up that quickly.

“You ready for your first mission with the famous Commander Shepard, Lieutenant?” Nihlus asked.

Kaidan nodded. “Yes, sir.”

He thought he saw the tiniest hint of a smile on the Turian’s face, but it was gone in an instant. “Good. We’re in for some work now, but I don’t doubt that we’ll be able to do what we were heading here for in the first place.”

Just then, Commander Shepard abruptly turned around, crossing her arms as she looked over the cargo hold and the supplies stocked there. The wheels were obviously turning in her head. She turned back to the group and put her hands on her hips after a moment of thought. “Alright, guys, we ready to find out just what happened on Eden Prime? We’re three minutes out from the drop zone. Get ready for some fighting.” With that, Commander Shepard crossed her arms again and turned away, staring out over the cargo hold again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So when I started writing this, I was only about halfway through the first game. Now, I'm maybe a third of the way done with the third game. Oops. But I kinda have a thing for Kaidan, and I also have a soft spot for fics that follow the plot of games. And since I couldn't find one that started from the first game for Kaidan, I decided I'd do my own. I'm planning on doing one for each game, but we'll just have to see how it goes!


	2. Initial Drop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard is nervous about working with others.

Mabel Shepard paid close attention to her surroundings at all times. After what happened to her when she was sixteen, she was always careful to be sure she was safe – or at least had the means to protect herself if necessary.

So when people began arriving at the Normandy’s docking bay, she noticed. She had been in the middle of a conversation with David Anderson. She had known him since she joined the Alliance at age eighteen. He was one of the few people she really trusted in the galaxy, and he knew just about everything about her.

But he didn’t know just how much her past still affected her. Now that he was also her commanding officer, Mabel didn’t feel like she could confide in him for fear of him feeling the need to check up on her all the time, or worse, sending her to have a psych eval. It wasn’t bad; she just had nightmares from time to time.

Okay, maybe more like every three nights. But everyone gets nightmares.

The first person to show up was a man on crutches. Nothing to fear there, though he did seem a little out of place. Anderson said he was their pilot.

“Shepard, I understand being a little nervous. I know you would prefer to know more of the others who’ll be joining us, but I picked them myself. If I don’t know them personally, I talked with their previous crew mates and commanding officers. Not only are these men and women the best and brightest, they’re also some of the most trustworthy the alliance has to offer,” Anderson was saying. “But this mission is crucial, which is why we picked you. We need the best of the best, and that includes you too.”

As he talked, another man appeared. He seemed the quiet, unassuming type. After looking around, he approached the pilot, and they got themselves deep into a conversation.

Mabel decided she might as well introduce herself to a couple of the crew members now, while there weren’t too many gathered. She excused herself from her conversation with Anderson, pretending not to notice how pleased he was that she was going to talk to them of her own volition.

“All I know of her is from the vids,” the quiet-seeming one said.

“Know of who from the vids?”

He jumped and saluted her, his ears growing slightly pink. It was kind of cute, how embarrassed he got. She watched his eyes flash over her before he focused on matching her gaze. Mabel laughed, crossing her arms.

“Rest easy, soldier. No need to be quite so formal with me, not right now. You were saying?” she asked.

The soldier relaxed, looking visibly relieved by her words. “All I know of you is from the vids, ma’am. That you’re a survivor, and you’re a Vanguard. No one really knows much else of you.”

“Yes, and that’s because I prefer to keep myself out of the spotlight as much as I possibly can,” she said, giving him a small smile. “What’s your name, soldier?”

“Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, ma’am.”

“Nice to meet you, Lieutenant.” She turned to the pilot. “And you?”

“Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau, ma’am, but call me Joker.” He leaned on one crutch and gave her a salute.

“Commander Mabel Shepard. It’s nice to meet you both. I hope we work well together on the coming mission.” She paused, realizing she was actually sincere. She liked these two. Then, she realized she probably shouldn’t have mentioned the mission. “I don’t think I was supposed to say that yet. Well, you’ll find out soon enough.”

Mabel watched as Kaidan fought a smile. It made her smile as well. Then, she noticed others approaching. She turned and went back to Captain Anderson. He was smiling at her.

“Seems to me that you may just be alright, Shepard. I think you just got yourself set up to make a couple friends.”

Mabel snorted. “I hope so.”

“You’re a good person, Shepard. They’ll like you.”

* * *

 

Mabel was standing in the cargo hold near the armory, her arms crossed. Behind her was the lieutenant from earlier, Kaidan; a Turian Spectre named Nihlus; and a young corporal, Jenkins. They were waiting to be dropped on Eden Prime. The transmission they had received from there was awful. She was afraid for the people there and what they might find.

She was especially nervous because Corporal Jenkins was from Eden Prime. She didn’t want him to have to go through the sort of thing she did on Mindoir.

Joker’s voice came on over the comms. “Engaging stealth systems.” As they drew closer, they saw that the sky was full of a red haze. Mabel heard Jenkins suck in a breath. “Someone’s been doing some serious digging here, Captain,” Joker announced.

“I’ve never seen it look like this before,” Jenkins said softly.

The door opened, revealing Captain Anderson. He approached Mabel, looking grave. “Your team’s the muscle in this operation, Commander. Go in heavy and head straight for the dig site.”

Kaidan broke in. “What about survivors, Captain?” It made her glad that he was worried about the civilians. When she escaped Mindoir, the people who came to rescue her refused to search for other survivors. It was only when she threatened to steal a shuttle and search on her own that they finally helped her search.

Maybe if they had helped right away, they might have found more survivors than just herself. Or they might have saved a couple of people from being kidnapped.

Anderson gave Mabel a look before turning back to Kaidan. “Helping survivors is a secondary objective. The beacon’s your top priority.”

Joker came over the comms again. “Approaching drop point one.”

Corporal Jenkins spoke up, turning to the Spectre. “Nihlus? You’re coming with us?” he asked.

Nihlus didn’t look up as he spoke, instead focused on checking his gun. “I move faster on my own.” He moved toward the open hatch and jumped out.

“Nihlus will scout out ahead. He’ll feed you status reports throughout the mission. Otherwise, I want radio silence,” Captain Anderson said.

“We’ve got his back, Captain,” Mabel announced. Despite the past animosity between humans and Turians, she felt that they should work together, and humans with other races as well.

“The mission’s yours now, Shepard. Good luck.”

“We are approaching drop point two,” Joker announced.

“Alright guys, let’s move!” Mabel announced, jumping out of the hatch. Kaidan and Corporal Jenkins were close behind.

Once they landed, Mabel drew her pistol and swept the area to be sure they were safe for the moment. “This place got hit hard, Commander. Hostiles everywhere. Keep your guard up,” Nihlus said over the comms.

She led them through the clearing and noticed something blocking the way. She took cover behind a rock and looked around it. The things looked like giant orange jellyfish.

“What the hell are those?” Kaidan asked, echoing Mabel’s thoughts.

“Gas bags. Don’t worry, they’re harmless,” Jenkins explained.

Mabel took an experimental shot, and the one she hit exploded.

“Damn!” Kaidan shouted.

“I don’t think I want hostiles to take advantage of those and hurt us,” Mabel announced. She shot at the remaining ones.

When they were all gone, Mabel noticed some strange mechanical noises. She followed the sounds and saw smoke billowing in the distance.

“Oh, God. What happened here?” Jenkins asked. His voice was filled with horror, and rightfully so. He had grown up here, so seeing this destruction was that much more painful for him.

As they moved, Mabel saw a corpse burnt to a crisp. She moved by it quickly, hoping to keep Jenkins from noticing it. When they rounded a corner, she held up a hand and paused. All she saw were more gas bags, so she let them move closer. As Jenkins moved forward, drones appeared through the smoke and fired their lasers at him. He let out a terrible scream and dropped to the ground. Mabel immediately took out one drone, allowing Kaidan to get the other.

She rushed up to where Jenkins had fallen, but he was already gone. Mabel carefully closed his eyes and sighed.

“Ripped right through his shields. Never had a chance,” Kaidan said softly.

“We’ll see that he receives a proper service once the mission is complete. But I need you to stay focused.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.”

They moved ahead, taking out more drones as they did. Mabel glanced back at Kaidan when they had a moment’s peace. He was looking down, inspecting his weapon, but Mabel recognized the look on his face. It was pain. He was so upset about Jenkins. Had they known each other?

The comms crackled, startling them both out of their distracted states. “I’ve got some burned out buildings out here, Shepard. A lot of bodies,” Nihlus announced. “I’m going to check it out. I’ll try to catch up with you at the dig site.”

As they rounded another corner, taking out more drones, Mabel and Kaidan saw a soldier come running toward them. She was running for her life from another group of drones. She took a hit in the back but kept going, barely letting it phase her in the slightest. She dove to the ground and shot a drone down, and as she got up, Mabel and Kaidan noticed a pair of strange synthetics positioning a man on top of something as he tried to squirm from their grip. To their horror, the activated device shot a spike up through the man while he was still alive. He let out a blood-curdling shriek before falling limp.

The soldier ran for it, unfortunately getting the attention of the synthetics in the process. Her pristine white armor didn’t help matters, as she nearly glowed in the dull, dusty light. She dove behind a boulder for cover, clutching her gun to her chest. The synthetics moved closer to her and further into Mabel’s line of sight. She took a shot and hit one right in the optics, taking it down with just that shot. Kaidan got the other one and ran up beside her as she approached the soldier.

“Thank you for your help, Commander. I didn’t think I was going to make it,” the soldier said as she holstered her weapon. Mabel merely nodded in response.

“Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, ma’am?” she asked.

“Are you wounded, Williams?”

She took a deep breath. “A few scrapes and burns. Nothing serious. The others weren’t so lucky. Oh man… We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut off our communications. I’ve been fighting for my life ever since.”

“Where’s the rest of your squad?”

“We tried to double back to the beacon, but we walked into an ambush. I don’t think any of the others… I think I’m the only one left.”

Mabel felt a pang of sympathy for the girl. It was starting to sound like what had happened to her on Akuze. It was hard to get over, and now she knew that this girl would have to go through it too.

“This isn’t your fault, Williams. You couldn’t have done anything to save them.”

“Yes, ma’am. We held our positions as long as we could. Until the geth overwhelmed us.”

Kaidan piped up from behind Mabel. “The geth haven’t been seen outside the Veil in nearly 200 years. Why are they here now?”

Williams shrugged. “They must have come for the beacon. The dig site is close, just over that rise. It might still be there.”

“We could use your help, Williams,” Mabel said. She didn’t want to leave her behind to her possible death.

“Aye aye, ma’am. It’s time for payback.”

Mabel started to turn to leave, but then she remembered Nihlus. His status reports were coming less and less often, and she was beginning to get nervous.

“Have you seen a Turian Spectre around here?” Mabel asked.

“There aren’t any Turians on Eden Prime. None that I’ve ever met. Not sure if I’d be able to tell if one was a Spectre, anyway,” Williams replied.

“If you saw this guy, you’d know. Carries enough firepower to wipe out a whole platoon. Luckily, he’s on our side,” Kaidan said.

“Sorry. Like I said, no Turians.” Mabel noticed Williams giving Kaidan a weird look. When she turned to glance at him, Kaidan whipped his gaze to Williams. Mabel furrowed her brow and looked back at Williams, who merely shrugged.

“Alright, let’s move out! Williams, switch to our frequency.”

As they moved forward, they kept to the walls of the trench, hoping to be able to find cover should more geth appear. “The beacon’s at the far end of this trench,” Williams whispered.

When they got halfway down the trench, they heard more telltale signs of the geth communicating. They dove behind some boulders in the middle of the trench and were able to take the geth out together relatively quickly. However, when they got to the dig site, there was nothing there that looked even remotely like a beacon of any sort.

“Huh. This is the dig site. The beacon was right here. It must have been moved,” Williams said.

“By who? Our side or the geth?” Kaidan asked.

“Hard to say. Maybe we’ll know more once we check out the research camp.”

“You think anyone got out of here alive?” Mabel asked.

“If they were lucky. Maybe hiding up in the camp. It’s just on the top of this ridge, up the ramps,” Williams replied.

They began heading up the ramps with Williams pointing out directions. Nihlus came over the comms again. “Change of plans, Shepard. There’s a small spaceport up ahead. I want to check it out. I’ll wait for you there.”

Mabel had a bad feeling about that, but there was nothing she could really do. Nihlus didn’t have to take orders from her, and gut feelings weren’t exactly solid reasons to avoid something that could give important intel about a situation. And on top of that, Anderson would lecture her if she broke the radio silence to warn him about just a gut feeling.

As they climbed the hill into the camp, more destruction slowly came into view. “Looks like they hit the camp hard,” Williams commented.

“It’s a good place for an ambush. Keep your guard up,” Kaidan added.

Before they entered the camp, Mabel paused to take a quick look at her squad. She noticed no injuries and no signs of weak morale. Considering how awfully things had gone, they were looking as good as they could.

Mabel already could feel trust in Williams forming. Maybe it was sympathy over their similar experiences, maybe it was just how quickly Williams worked to prove her worth to the team, but it was there. And Kaidan, well, he was proving to be an excellent soldier and an insightful colleague. She felt that both of them were going to be very important to her, given some time.

Once they crested the hill, Mabel noticed more of the spikes scattered about, with human figures dangling from them. However, not all of the figures still looked human. Several had black skin and glowing blue patterns covering their bodies, with glowing blue eyes that looked more like flashing camera lenses than anything else.

One twitched, and the spike it was on descended back into the base. It slowly sat up and dragged itself off the base, looking around.

“Oh, God, they’re still alive!” Kaidan exclaimed, his horror seeping into his voice.

“What did the geth do to them?” Williams asked, equally horrified.

As they moved further into the camp, the creatures moved closer, screeching at them. A group of the creatures began running toward them, but they quickly disposed of them. Mabel didn’t want to know what would happen if they got close.

They moved through the camp, keeping an eye out for any survivors that may be hiding out somewhere. Williams pointed out a locked building – a shed, really – as they passed, so Mabel decrypted the lock. As she poked her head in, she startled a woman in research clothing.

“Humans! Thank the Maker!” she said, wringing her hands. A man in similar clothing waved them all inside.

“Hurry! Close the door before they come back!” They did as the man asked, Mabel making sure Kaidan kept an eye on the door as it shut.

“How did you end up in this shed?” Mabel asked.

“We hid here during the attack. They must have come here for the beacon. Luckily it wasn’t here. It was moved to the spaceport earlier this morning. Manuel and I stayed behind to pack up the camp,” the woman explained. “When the attack came, the marines held them off long enough for us to hide. They gave their lives to save us.”

“No one is saved. The age of humanity is ended. Soon, only ruin and corpses will remain,” the man, Manuel replied.

“Did you notice a Turian in the area?” Mabel asked, figuring they may have seen Nihlus through the window.

“I saw him! The prophet, leader of the enemy! He was here before the attack,” Manuel said.

“That’s impossible. Nihlus was with us on the Normandy before the attack. He couldn’t have been here,” Kaidan replied, once again echoing Mabel’s thoughts.

“I’m sorry, Manuel’s still a bit unsettled. We haven’t seen your Turian. We’ve been hiding in here since the attack,” the woman piped.

“Williams, take us to the spaceport,” Mabel said, turning to her.

“Good luck, Commander,” the woman said as they left. Manuel merely continued to mutter to himself. As they headed up the hill, they heard a loud gunshot echo from somewhere nearby.

“The hell was that?” Mabel muttered. She drew her pistol and began heading toward the sound. Something was telling her that things were about to get a lot worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, remember how in the first chapter I said I was partway through the third game? Well, I actually finished it not long after I posted that chapter, and I just haven't been working on this much. I've been kinda busy; I'm leaving for my first semester at a university soon so I've been packing up my room and was also given a lot of hours in my last month at work (not to mention being out of town for about a week and a half total too).  
> Anyway! I can't guarantee how fast I'll be with these once I get to college (I leave next Friday!) but I'll try not to take over a month. Also, most other chapters won't focus so much on dialogue directly from the game. Really the only ones that'll happen from is the main quests, but I'll be improvising once I'm done with this one since this is likely the only one I'll be finding online with Kaidan and I don't know if I want to replay Mass Effect just for dialogue, ahaha.
> 
> [EDIT] I did decide to replay Mass Effect, so I'm taking note of dialogue and changing it around. There are a couple lines I changed to mirror what's said in game, and hopefully I won't forget to continue to do that as I continue to replay it.

**Author's Note:**

> So when I started writing this, I was only about halfway through the first game. Now, I'm maybe a third of the way done with the third game. Oops. But I kinda have a thing for Kaidan, and I also have a soft spot for fics that follow the plot of games. And since I couldn't find one that started from the first game for Kaidan, I decided I'd do my own. I'm planning on doing one for each game, but we'll just have to see how it goes!


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